Month: December 2014

On occasion of the local election in May 2014, we conducted a project on “Local elections in Mainz: A Project on voter mobilization”. The project report is now available for download here.

Summary
In the run-up to the Mainz local election of 2014, we conducted a field experiment in order to investigate the effectiveness of mobilizing procedures. Door-to-door visits are generally regarded as a successful mobilizing tool but there had not been any empirical studies for Germany before. With the help of different mobilizing treatments (door-to-door and flyers) in randomly chosen districts, we examined to which extent the treatments had an effect on the voting behaviour. The study was accompanied by a survey. The report summarizes the idea and background of the project as well as its structure and implementation. The results are documented in two parts; they show that door-to-door visits in fact help to mobilize voters.

During this week’s colloquium, Rob Johns from the University of Essex gave a talk on “Why Scotland voted ‘No’”. On the basis of opinion polls, he elaborated why Scottish independence was defeated on 18 September 2014.
One of the most important reasons, according to Johns, was the fear of the consequences of independence rather than a lack of Scottish national pride. The talk was followed by a lively debate to which Johns added some more details of his findings. It became clear: the idea of an independent Scotland will remain part of public discourse.